A complete wine pleb

[neilm]

Hello all
I am new to your site and quite frankly I know just about nothing about wine.

Someone was spouting off about wine at a party last night and stated that the further south in Europe that a grape is grown, the stronger the wine it will make. They then went on to say that French wines have to be blended with stronger Italian wines to get their alcohol volume up.

Is this true?

[wineguruchgo]

Hi NeilM,

Welcome to the wineboard!

True? Well, yes and no. Let's tackle the latitude issue first. For the most part the warmer climate wines will be higher in alcohol and lower in sugar. Think of a Shiraz from Australia vs. a Riesling from Germany. The wines from a northern climate are generally leaner than those from the south. Of course there are exceptions to every rule.

Now for the no - The French laws are so strict that they won't even permit wines from Burgundy to be blended with wines from Bordeaux. If you go to the first page of this site and click on the politics section you will see where some poor farmer had to pull out his vines because he "wasn't allowed to grow them in the region".

I'm thinking that your friends were a little confused. The Italians have been known to blend "big wines" from Sicily into vintages from lean years in the north. The Italians are far more laid back then the French who always have their panties in a bunch!

Hope that helped a little.

[neilm]

Thanks for the info
The person who I was speaking with was Italian, and he sure was laid back!!

I supose if I ask enough daft questions I may become an expert in time!

[wineguruchgo]

The only "daft" questions are the ones that aren't asked!

Keep the questions coming! We'll be here to help you figure out your foreign friends!